


A single moment of sincerity

by SilenceoftheLlamas



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Blood and Injury, Denial of Feelings, Eventual Relationships, Gay Keith (Voltron), M/M, Memory Loss, Sentient Lions
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-11
Updated: 2016-11-08
Packaged: 2018-08-21 21:59:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 16,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8261866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilenceoftheLlamas/pseuds/SilenceoftheLlamas
Summary: The longer they spent in space, the less they found themselves longing for a home they didn't remember. The only problem? Keith is the only one noticing that they're forgetting."Allura was persistently steering them away from the Earth, sending them away to planets further and further away until Earth was simply an idea, and the map no longer scrolled across enough to include their quant little galaxy."





	1. Chapter One: The Fall

**Author's Note:**

> Been wanting to write this for aaages!  
> Not entirely canon-compliant, please bare with me on that front. Info on why my updates for… everything are spotty is on my tumblr of the same username for anyone who’s interested!

They’d been in space for months, now.

Arus was now a distant memory, and Earth even further. How much time had passed on Earth? Hours? Days? Months? Years? They had no way of telling. They’d probably never go home again.

Even though no one admitted it, or even spoke about it, they all wondered how everyone reacted to their disappearance. Did anyone recognize them on the speeder that Keith used to retrieve Shiro? Were they considered fugitives? Were their families being interrogated? Did the world think that they were dead?

Blue had been seen, though. Were they hunting for Blue? Did they know that the two were linked; the Blue lions appearance and their disappearance? Did the public know about Blue? Did their families know about Blue?

There were so many questions, but they weren’t getting answers.

Allura was persistently steering them away from the Earth, sending them away to planets further and further away until Earth was simply an idea, and the map no longer scrolled across enough to include their quant little galaxy.

Little by little, Lance stopped talking about the beach. He stopped talking about his mum’s hugs; the way the sunlight sparkled on the surface of the waves, and how his hair felt after a day in the surf. Lance stopped tasting salt.

Hunks cooking slowly moved further and further away from Earth cuisine. When Pidge had asked for lasagna, it took him a few minutes to remember what lasagna even was. Hunk stopped talking about his family, too; Shiro had never mentioned any to begin with. Pidge gradually stopped mentioning her brother and father. She still insisted that she had to find her family, but every so often she would falter, and a confused look would flash across her face.

It bothered Keith.

They were forgetting.

The further from Earth they got, the more memories they lost. Keith didn’t remember how sand felt, how it scratched across his skin, the way it slipped through his fingers, the way it irritated his feet when it got into his socks. He remembered the blistering sun, the way his skin bubbled and turned red when he spent too long outside, waiting, listening, searching.

He didn’t remember what he was looking for.

He didn’t remember how he got here. All he knew was that Lance had brought him here, and that Red was _his_. That Red was all he needed, and he absolutely could not lose her.

* * *

 

“It’s pretty creepy, you know.” Lance had suddenly said one day, sat down on a rocky ledge overlooking a crystal lake with Keith.

“What is?” Keith had replied, looking up from where he was polishing his bayard.

“That we have Sendak in the basement.”

They didn’t exactly have a basement. Keith chose to not comment on that.

“Would you rather he be somewhere else?”

“No.” Lance shot back. “It’s just… weird. Knowing he’s that close to us. Do you think he listens to us?”

“He’s unconscious.”

“He may not be!”

Keith put his bayard away and stood up, knees clicking. “I wonder if you can swim in this lake.” He didn’t really want to talk about Sendak. He still wanted to punch the furry bastard in the face.

Lance’s forehead creased as he frowned for a second.

"It looks pretty solid to me, we'd probably skate on it instead."

"Didn't you live next to a beach?" Keith asked. "I didn't think the sea froze."

Lance frowned at him. "I didn't live by a beach."

Keith fixed him with a look. "Yes, you did."

"I think I'd know where I lived!" Lance snapped back. "Go back to your desert, Anakin." He roughly stood up and stalked away, a hand feverishly rubbing at his head.

"Who's Anakin!?" Keith shouted after him. Grumbling to himself, he looked back at the crystal lake.

He was pretty certain Lance had lived by the sea. Had their memories been degraded this badly? How come he remembered where his house was? The little cactus that grew just under his window? The pictures pasted onto the wall?

He didn't remember what the pictures were of.

Eventually Keith pushed himself up too and trailed after Lance. Maybe Hunk would remember?

Keith found Hunk in the kitchen, the bulky man rummaging in the cold store. The dull ache in his stomach told him it was almost dinner time, and Hunk was probably on dinner duty again. A welcome change from the goop the castle supplied.

"Hey, Hunk?" Keith asked. Hunk peered out from the cold store, ice clinging onto his fringe.

"Oh, hey Keith." Hunk cheerfully replied. "I was just looking for these tubers we found the other week on that yellow planet, the one with the furry things? Do you know where they are? I know a great recipe for them."

"I... Have no idea." Keith stuttered in reply. "I was actually gunna ask you something."

"What's what?"

"Do you remember your house at all?"

Hunk frowned at him, his eye twitching in a wince. "I think so? Why do you ask?"

"Just curious." Keith waved him off. "Good luck finding the tubers."

Hunk replied with his thanks before diving back into the cold store. Keith watched him for a moment before turning to leave the kitchen.

Allura politely smiled at him in question.

Keith simply nodded at her and set off to find Pidge and Shiro.

Pidge was sat by her lion, surprise surprise, and was tapping away on her laptop. She waved off Keith and told him to come back later. She was busy, she insisted. His questions could wait until she had finished decoding whatever her little hands had gotten hold of this time.

Shiro was nowhere to be found.

With a grunt, Keith slumped down outside the ship. He distantly heard Coran doing _something_ on the exterior, the tinkling of bolts and the clanging of metal on metal reaching his ears. Lance was nowhere to be found, either.

Keith hated this. He knew something was wrong, people just didn't _forget_ like this. They didn't forget where they used to live, for christs sake, they didn't forget what their home looked like or even where it was. It didn't happen.

Slowly but surely, all they were going to be left with were memories of Voltron. It would be as if Voltron was their life, and there had been nothing else before that.

It was wrong. It was so, so wrong.

"I thought you'd be training." Someone said as they walked towards him. Keith glanced up at them, the blue registering faster than their voice. Lance.

"Allura's recalibrating the programme." Keith replied.

Lance slowly sat down beside Keith. "I think you were right, before. About the beach."

"About you living there?" Keith asked.

"Yeah. I totally forgot. It's been so long."

"Come on," Keith said as he hauled Lance to his feet. "We should check out that lake."

Lance was about to protest when he saw that Keith wasn't looking at him. He saw Coran in the reflection on his eyes and bit back his words - Keith had reason to not trust Coran, and Lance had a feeling he should be trusting Keith's instincts.

"I'll race you!" Lance wriggled his hands out of Keith's grip before sprinting away, Keith only having a moment to register what had happened before he quickly dashed after him.

“L-Lance!” Keith tripped over his feet before he quickly regained his footing, Lance only outpacing him because his legs were so damn long. Who even needed legs that long?! Keith certainly didn’t, they just made bigger targets. The two raced down towards the shore, Lance leading the way and hastily jumping from rock to rock, his hands expertly gripping onto the rock face for balance. Keith’s hands quickly became sore. He didn’t seem to care.

“Come on, slow poke! Fastest paladin my ass!” Lance jumped down onto black sand, the saturated sediment splashing up onto his stark white shoes. Keith jumped down next to him a moment later.

“My _lion_ is the fastest.” Keith corrected. Lance just rolled his eyes and waved him off.

“Details, details.” Lance walked towards the lake and poked the surface with his foot. It rippled. “Huh, what do ya know? It’s liquid.”

Keith knelt down and picked up a fistful of sand, letting it run through his fingers. It felt so, so familiar, but he just couldn’t place it at all. He _knew_ it was home, he _knew_ he should remember this, but… he couldn’t put the two together. Glancing up, he saw Lance was doing the same, his face twisted in confusion before his eyes widened and he looked decidedly panicked.

“This is so weird.” Lance looked up at Keith. “I know this feeling, but I don’t know why.”

“I think Allura is hiding something from us.” Keith replied, letting all the sand in his hand drop to the floor before brushing his hands off. “Nobody just _forgets_ like this. Not unless there’s something wrong.”

“Do you think something happened to us?” Lance asked. “Shiro lost his memory from trauma, could’ve happened to us too.”

“Maybe.” Keith replied, squishing the wet sand between his hands to make small mounds. _This_ was new to him – wet sand in the desert meant he was wasting water, so he didn’t do it. “But surely we’d have some memory of that?”

Lance plopped down onto the sand next to Keith. “Did Shiro?”

Keith shook his head. “I don’t remember.” He crushed the mound he was making with the heel of his palm. “His memories were triggered by similar events, though.” He poked his finger into the black sand as far as it could go, relishing in how cold it felt.

He could feel sand in the creases of his glove.

Keith looked out over the lake, only now realising that it was a spectrum of colour. He absently wondered what it looked like to the natives.

The sky was a rich plum colour, one of the three suns that illuminated the planet now slowly sinking below the horizon. Coran would be done with the repairs soon, and they'd have to get back on board before they continued on their journey.

"Do you think we'll ever go home again?" Keith asked.

"The castle is our home now." Lance replied, looking out over the lake. "We have to accept it."

Keith frowned. That wasn't what Lance would have said a month ago.

When the second sun had begun to set, Lance chattering Keith's ear off about some alien girl he had met and how she was _so totally into him_ , Keith suddenly pushed himself back up off the wet sand. "I'm going back."

"Aw, you jealous?" Lance teased as he followed suit. "Don't worry, I'm sure some girls would like your mullet."

Keith felt a pang go through his chest, but he wasn't entirely sure why. He elected to ignore it.

"I'm not jealous." Keith spat, "I don't care about that kind of thing."

Lance continued to prod him the _entire_ climb back up the cliff, Keith growing more and more annoyed before he had whirled and snapped at him to _shut the hell up_. Lance looked slightly taken aback, his eyes lingering just a moment too long on Keith's flushed face before he backtracked and promptly changed the topic.

Once inside Lance had excused himself to go find Hunk, which suited Keith just fine. The red paladin tapped his armour on the ground just outside the castle, shaking off any loose sand before he went inside and headed towards his room. He had a shower unit in there he could get the more stubborn bits of sand off in.

He felt like he was being watched. The castle walls seemed to be closer, more stifling than usual. Walls loomed over him, threatening to crush him under their weight.

Keith sped up.

Thankfully, his quarters were a safe haven. The walls opened back up, allowing him to breathe again. The lights filled the room with a familiar hum and crackle as Keith wriggled out of his armour and chucked it towards the bathroom door. He peeled off his clothes and grabbed his towel from the end of his bed.

_Breathe, Keith. Just breathe._

The shower squeaked on, water pattering against the stark white tiles. Keith grabbed his sandy armour and dumped it into the cubicle, scrubbing at it with his hands as the water warmed up. Once deemed warm enough, Keith finished cleaning the sand up and hopped in himself, relishing in the warmth spilling out over his hair, down his back and shoulders. He ran his fingers through his dark locks.

…. Did he really have a mullet?

He scrubbed off the day’s dirt and sweat, almost missing the scent of his tropical shampoo that sat in his bathroom at home. He wondered if anyone had stumbled across his house, if they’d used his shampoos and soaps. If anyone had brushed their teeth in his sink, if they’d drunk that can of grape Fanta he’d been saving.

Keith could have bitterly laughed at how he remembered that stupid can of Fanta, but he didn’t remember what the desert felt like.

* * *

 

“Watch yourself, Lance!” Shiro warned.

As per usual, the Galra had managed to find them in the lone corner of a galaxy Keith couldn’t remember the name of. Did Sendak have a tracker on him or something? They _always_ managed to find them, no matter where they hid.

“I’ll be fine!” Lance shot back, his voice cocky with laughter. The blue lion span around in the air, Lance’s laughter ringing out over the comms. Keith would have found it annoying if he wasn’t so preoccupied with the fight at hand.

His lion purred at him, a constant reassurance. _I wont let these bastards get you_ , she whispered in images and emotions. _They’ll never get you too_.

Keith closed his eyes and breathed in deeply to steel himself, Red taking the controls for a moment as she spat hot plasma at a Galra ship that got too close for comfort. He slowly released his breath, and when he reopened his eyes they flashed gold.

 _Let’s do this_.

He slammed the controls forward, Red hurtling towards the oncoming Galra.

“Remember, we’re a team.” Shiro’s voice rang through his head. “We work together. Don’t get separated, watch each others backs.”

Keith tuned out the chatter that followed. Pidge had said something about cloaking herself to take out an ion cannon, Hunk had replied with something that made Lance laugh.

 _Don’t let his laugh distract you, Keith_.

“I won’t.” Keith groused back, not caring that he had spoken aloud as he tore through a drone.

“Who ya talking to, Keith?” Lance chirped, Keith watching him freeze a few drones from the corner of his vision.

“… Red.” Keith reluctantly replied.

“You do realise you don’t have to speak aloud to them, right?” Lance teased.

“Lance.” Shiro snapped in warning.

“I’m well aware.” Keith shot back before closing his end of the connection. Jackass.

 _He is distracting you_.

“He gets under my skin so easily.”

_Then get under his._

Keiths face flushed a bright red to match his lion. “I don’t think it’s that easy.” Keith mumbled in reply, directing Red back towards the others. He didn’t want to get too separated.

 _Then learn. Learn how to pick him to pieces_.

“He’s my team mate!” Keith adjusted his grip on the controls. “I can’t hurt him, it’ll alienate myself even further.”

 _He has no issue doing it to you_.

Keith didn’t reply.

_Cat got your tongue?_

“Let’s… just finish this.” Keith hissed back. “Then we can talk.”

Red purred in reply as Keith enabled his comms again.

They fell into a pattern. Dodge. Attack. Destroy. Next target. Wash, rince, repeat. The Galra drones were beginning to thin out, the warships beginning to retreat when they realized they were losing more forces than it was worth, especially when they couldn’t keep the ion cannons on for longer than five minutes before the gremlin they called Pidge disabled them. Keith managed to fool himself into thinking it was safe to relax a fraction, and he sighed in relief at the thought of the fight nearly being over. He could go back to his quarters and flop down on his bed, wrapped up in his blanket and _finally_ finish that nap-

“Oh, shit!” Lance shouted out, Keith flinching in his seat and whacking his head around so fast his neck clicked.

“Lance!” Keith shouted out, whacking the controls forwards as he sped towards him.

Keith didn’t see where the shot had come from. All he knew was that Blue had a hole in her side, electricity arching over her body, and that she was being drawn into the atmosphere of the planet below them.

“Keith, wait!” Shiro shouted, but did Keith listen?

No.

He never was any good at listening.

Lance had said it himself. He was the fastest paladin. He’d get there the fastest; he’d be able to get to him before it was too late.

“I can do this, damn it!” He shouted back, pushing Red to her limit as he raced towards Lance.

Blinding pain shot through his side, a phantom ache radiating out across his abdomen.

What the hell?

“Keith!” Pidge shouted out, her lion jumping forward a step before she remembered what Shiro had said. Keith could her hear grit her teeth.

“Hunk, find out where those shots are coming from.” Shiro ordered, Hunk spluttering out a reply that sounded like an affirmative before he went silent. Keith could only imagine what he was doing inside his lion.

“We’re getting caught in the planets gravity!” Lance panicked, his lion twisting and turning as though trying to wriggle free. Keith belatedly noticed that her thrusters weren’t working, shooting sparks out instead of the blue flames they should have been. He tested his to no avail – they were in the same predicament.

“Our thrusters are shot.” Keith calmly informed them. “What’s the likelihood of us surviving the impact?”

“You can’t be serious!” Pidge demanded.

“I am. You’ll probably get shot at if you try to get us.” Keith replied. Lance was strangely quiet.

Pidge made a grumbling noise before she reluctantly replied. “You’ll have a few bruises if you hit a fluid, the lions will take the brunt of the impact. I’m not gunna say the same for if you hit something solid.”

“Oh, that’s so comforting.” Lance choked out.

“You two, try to aim for a body of water. We’ll come and get you when we can. Pidge, will you be able to track them?”

“Maybe? I don’t know. Allura will know where their lions are, though.” Pidge replied.

“I think the shots are coming from the planet,” Hunk said, “are you sure it’s a good idea to not try to get them?”

“What?! You’re letting us fall onto a hostile planet?!” Lance shrieked.

“We’re not letting you guys do anything-“ Shiro tried to soothe him, but to no avail. Lance had already activated Panic Mode.

“Lance, stop!” Keith hissed at him. “Panicking isn’t going to help the situation. Shiro, is there anything you could throw to us to try pull us away?”

“Not that I know of.” He admitted. “Would the momentum of you firing at the planet be enough to knock you out of its gravitational field?”

“I don’t think so,” Keith replied. “We’re in too far.”

Lance was far too quiet, now.

 _I thought his voice annoyed you? He’s a distracting little boy_.

‘It’s distracting not being able to hear him now’, Keith replied. ‘I’m not sure if he got hit by that shot.’

 _My sister ensures me that he is fine, however she is a pathological lair_.

‘So that translates to ‘he’s very much not okay’? That’s just excellent.’

_She would be more panicked if he were severely harmed._

‘So Lance is just being a drama queen? That’s comforting.’

“We’ll meet you on the surface.” Shiro said, his voice steeled. Keith swallowed hard, not sure if he liked his tone. “We’ll try and do what we can.”

“So we’re just going to let them fall?” Hunk protested.

“What else can we do?” Pidge shot back. “We get close and then we’ll be in the same position!”

“Allura assures me that we can communicate with them from the castle and gain safe access to get you guys back,” Shiro cleared his throat. “Until then, just… try to get along, okay?”

“I hate you guys so much right now.” Lance sulkily replied.

Keith kept his mouth shut.

It felt horrible, watching the other three retreat back to the castle. Watching flames begin to lick over his lion, blocking out his visuals with dancing reds and oranges. Lance was but a blue smudge in his vision.

He regretted running after him.

Lance pinged him with a private communication. With a heavy hand, Keith reached out to accept it.

“Lance?”

“Where do you think we’ll land?”

Keith tried to turn his lion, but the forces acting on it forced him to stay put.

“Hopefully somewhere soft. Can you see where we’re going?”

“Nope. Can you?”

“Nope.”

A heavy silence fell over them.

Red purred, grabbing his attention.

 _The ground is close. Please be safe_.

Keith adjusted his safety harness to better hold him in place, and made sure there was nothing close to him that could fly around and knock him out. “Red says the ground’s close.”

“Blue just said the same thing.” Lance replied with a nervous laugh. “This is going to hurt, isn’t it?”

“A lot.”

Lance audibly swallowed. “See you on the other side?”

“See you.”

Red snarled and curled into a ball, tucking her head in between her legs.

 _I wont let you be hurt. Not you too_.

Keith didn’t know what she meant, but he closed his eyes none the less and covered the back of his neck with his hands.


	2. Chapter Two: Mushroom Forest

Keith woke up with a pounding head and the taste of blood in his mouth.

“Red? Red, talk to me.” Keith set about undoing his safety harness, the display in front of him offline. He had no idea where he was, but he was alive and that was enough for him.

Faintly, there was a hum and a flicker before the pilot cabin lit up. Red rumbled.

_The trees broke our fall_.

So they’d landed in a forest. That was a good start. Forests meant shelter, food, and a water supply. He hoped nothing was poisonous; he had no idea how long he’d have to spend on this planet. “How’s Blue?”

_She is still offline_.

“Do you know where she is?”

_A stones throw to our left_.

Keith made to stand up, his head spinning and forcing him to slump back down. Whoa. Not entirely what he had expected. He looked down at his lap and saw that blood was dripping onto it. Gingerly, he touched his chin. It felt wet.

Great.

_Are you hurt?_

Red almost sounded meek.

“I’ll be fine.” Keith huffed, dragging air into his lungs in a desperate attempt to get his head to _stop spinning, damn it_. “Just need a moment.”

_I did what I could. I’m sorry I didn’t do more_.

“You did more than enough. I should be dead right now.” Keith patted the chair as if Red would be able to feel it. “Thank you.”

Red almost preened, pausing and letting a deep aggressive rumble roll through her when they heard a loud bang to their right. Keith hastily found his bayard.

He refused to die here.

Sucking in a deep breath, Keith pushed himself upwards and staggered to the exit, dripping blood along the floor. His tongue felt sore. He suspected that he’d bitten through it in the crash.

Something was digging into his thigh. Absently he ran his hand down and removed whatever it was – it felt squishy yet hard. He glanced down.

He wished he hadn’t.

It was one of his teeth.

Feverishly, he ran his tongue over the teeth in his mouth, counting each one. His front teeth were safe, something he was immensely pleased about, but his back teeth…

He was missing at least three.

How the _fuck_ had he even managed that?! He quickly activated the bottom half of his helmet, he had no idea if he’d even be able to breathe outside of his lion.

“Easy, Red. Open up, I’ll go take a look.”

_You are hurt. I am safe_.

“But Blue’s still unconscious, and we don’t know what Lance is like. What if whoever shot us is out there?”

Red didn’t reply, uneasily rumbling to herself before, reluctantly, she opened her hatch.

_Please be quick_.

He slipped down the hatch, steadying himself so he didn’t end up shooting off the end. His mouth throbbed with pain now that he registered the fact he was missing teeth, blood still spattering down his chin.

The ground was marshy and saturated, every indent a pool of liquid. His helmet beeped at him to tell him the atmosphere was safe for him to breathe, but he still kept it firmly in place. Introducing fresh blood to an unknown ecosystem was a bad idea – who knows how the wildlife would react to it? Keith sure as hell didn’t want to find out.

He gently stepped out, grimacing as his foot was sucked into the ground with a wet _schloop_. Thankfully he only sunk down around an inch. Still clinging onto Red, he placed his other foot down to receive the same result.

The planet wasn’t going to suddenly eat him.

Somewhat assured by this discovery, Keith set to scouting out where Blue had landed. The bang they had heard could wait, damn it. He had to make sure Lance was okay, first.

Team came first. Team always came first.

The ground squelched and made that disgusting _schloop_ noise with every single step he made. Being quiet was damn impossible, so he had to quietly accept his noisy fate as he trudged through the undergrowth.

It wasn’t exactly a forest. There were trees all right, but they were giant mushrooms. A voice in the back of his head whispered about a primal Earth, back to when the land was first being colonized. Maybe this was a planet that was going through the same process? Keith hoped they didn’t make the same mistakes.

But that just confirmed what his helmet was telling him; if this planet was indeed mimicking a primal Earth, then the atmosphere was somewhat safe to breathe. The oxygen concentration wasn’t the same, but it was better than nothing. They’d just have to breathe harder.

His shoe made an especially mushy noise, and he reluctantly lifted his foot to find that the ground was coming up with it just like gum. Oh, that was revolting. With a grimace, Keith tried to ignore it and pushed on.

And then, a flash of blue. His heart leapt into his throat and he began to run.

_Lance_!

His legs aching from struggling against the gloopy ground, Keith slumped against a mushroom-tree. He could see Blue from where he was, the lion curled up much like Red was. Sucking in a deep breath, Keith pushed himself up from the tree and made his way over to her.

“Blue?” He shouted as loud as he dared. Blood spattered against the inside of his mask, much to Keiths disgust. That would be a bitch to clean out.

The blue lion stirred, golden eyes flickering with life before puttering out. Keith got as close as he could, placing a hand on her muzzle. “Blue, you gotta wake up.”

Her eyes suddenly ignited with light, and a mouth full of teeth was suddenly roughly shoved into Keith. She growled at him as she slowly unfurled her body, tail rising up as though she were about to strike.

“Blue it’s me, it’s Keith!” Keith hastily backpedaled. Oh, shit. He truly, truly hated that the lions were incapable of vocalization to anyone but their paladins.

He also hated that Red was still curled up somewhere else and was not going to be getting between him and the business end of the taser on Blue’s tail.

Slowly, Blue seemed to calm down. Almost uneasily, she sat down with a huff. Keith frowned at her, briefly glancing behind himself to see if Red had appeared, or if Black had turned up to put the other lion in line, before turning back to Blue.

Her hatch clicked open, and Lance stumbled out.

“Lance?” Keith shouted over to him in slight disbelief. The taller boy staggered slightly, using Blues leg as something to keep himself steady, before he slowly looked up at Keith.

“Keith?” He shouted back, voice distinctly weaker. Keiths eyes flicked down to where Lance was clutching his side. His armour looked singed.

“Lance!” Keith ran towards him, ignoring how his feet slid on the marsh. He knew he had been hurt, damn it! Stupid stupid Lance! Keith skidded to a halt next to him, hands shooting out to help steady the other. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“About what?” Lance tried to play off, his breath wheezing.

“Don’t try to play fucking coy.” Keith snapped at him. “Come on, get back in your lion. I’ll go grab Red, then we can figure out this mess.”

Keith helped Lance back up into Blue, Lance trying to wriggle out of his hold at every opportunity. Keith couldn’t see his face through his visor, so he had no idea what kind of facial expressions he was pulling. Strangely, Lance wasn’t being too vocal about anything.

Lance slumped down onto the floor in Blue, chest heaving. Sticky red had started to leak out around the hand clamped down against his side.

Keith supposed that he didn’t look much better, either.

Red pushed against the edge of his presence, humming at him.

_You’ve been gone a while._

‘I found Lance. Are you able to move?’

_I will try for you, my paladin_.

‘Let me know if you need me to help you.’

Red purred in reply. Keith turned back to Lance and the matter at hand.

That armour had to come off.

“Where’s your first aid box?” Keith demanded. Ever since the first time they’d managed to get themselves injured in their lions, the five had insisted that each of them had basic medical supplies with them. Allura and Coran had seemed offended at the notion, however they had made an incredibly compelling point; not everyone could go into the regeneration chambers at once, and if they had gotten separated, they’d be fucked.

It was a conversation Keith was glad they had, because it became very, very useful in situations like this.

Lance weakly gestured to his pilot seat. “Under there.”

Keith scrambled over, ignoring the blood spatters on the floor as he dug under the chair for the medical kit. It was covered in doodles that Keith supposed Lance had made in a moment of boredom. He undid the latches and grabbed an antiseptic wipe, a wad of gauze, and a length of bandage.

He looked back over at lance.

Make that two antiseptic wipes.

He shuffled back over and dumped the things down next to himself before reaching forwards and trying to pry Lances hand from his side.

“Let go, you’re not helping.”

“But it hurts!” Lance whined.

“It’s gunna hurt more if you don’t let me get to it.” Keith threatened. Lance grumbled at him before removing his hand. Keith sucked in a breath sharply as he looked at the burn.

They’d really need more than what they had on them, truth be told. He wasn’t much good at dealing with burns.

“Okay, now you need to strip.”

“E-excuse me?!” Lance choked indignantly. “Is this why you said you weren’t interested in that kind of stuff? You’re gay?” He turned his head, and Keith didn’t even need to be able to see his face to know what expression he was pulling.

“Wh- no!” Keith spluttered. “I need to get access to your burn!”

“And this isn’t good enough?” Lance whined.

“You know it’s not!”

_I have found my sister. How is the paladin of blue?_

‘He’s being very fussy.’

_I am not surprised, my paladin. Please be fast, the stars are setting_.

Lance fumbled with the latches of his armour, his hands not quite sure where to go. After a few moments of watching his pitiful attempts to undo it himself, Keith batted away his hands and took the armour off himself. He was glad the helmet covered his entire face - Lance wouldn't see how red he had gone. Keith hated touching others when he didn't have to.

Lance was pretty useless at this point, so Keith rummaged in the first aid kit for some scissors so he could hack off the fabric obscuring the wound in his side. Lance could bitch and complain about it all he wanted after - Keith was going to be having none of that nonsense while he tried to stop Lance from getting horribly infected on the weird, moist planet they were on.

He shuddered at his disgusting choice of words. Jesus Christ, _moist_ \- who even said that anymore?

"How long have we been here for?" Lance shakily asked as Keith dabbed at the burn, cleaning it of any body fluid.

"I don't know." Keith replied. "But our lions are online, and if push comes to shove we can repair them ourselves."

"You don't think they'll come for us?"

"They will. Shiro wouldn't allow anything else."

Keith secured the bandage in place and rolled back into his heels to assess his work. Not perfect, but it would have to do.

"What should we do?" Keith asked. His stomach had a dull ache permeating throughout it; for once he saw why Hunk had a snack stash in his lion.

"I don't know." Lance huffed in reply. "This atmosphere is safe for us to breathe, right?"

"Yeah." Keith nodded. "I think this planet is like Earth was during the Silurian."

"The what now?" Lance sounded perplexed.

"The time period?" Keith raised his shoulders at him.

Lance just slowly shook his head. "Nope. No idea."

Keith sighed and rubbed a hand down the front of his helmet, the closest he was going to get to his face. Especially when he was covered in his own blood. "Basically, there's nothing really out there that can do us a lot of harm."

"So we're kinda safe?"

"Relatively speaking, but I don't think we're alone." Keith was about to continue when he heard a _schloop_ noise.

"Get Blue to close her hatch." Keith hissed, " _Now_."

The hatch quickly shut, locking the two Paladins inside.

_Paladin? Paladin, what is wrong?_

'Who's outside?'

_I see only a spider._

Red brushed a picture across Keith's conscience, and he latched onto it.

That was a huge ass spider.

'Why is it so big?!' Keith hissed, 'Arachnids are meant to be smaller in low oxygen concentrations!'

_I do not know_.

'Frankly, I'm not going outside when that _thing_ is out there.'

_They will leave soon enough. I doubt it will see much of a meal in myself and my sister._

'Hopefully. I want to take off my helmet already.

_What is stopping you from doing so?_

'I've managed to weld it to my face with my own blood.' Keith honestly replied. 'I'd rather deal with that inside you than with Lance two feet from me.'

_An honour, my paladin._

Keith slumped down on the wall opposite to Lance, his body starting to register his injuries. Part of his tongue being missing and a few teeth being knocked out was old news for his body - now it was screaming at him that his legs were aching and sore and probably bruised beyond reason, and that his back wasn't much better off. His ribs hurt, but thankfully it just felt like bruising. His neck was fine, and he suspected his hands had something to do with that given how stiff they felt.

"How're you feeling?" Lance suddenly asked him. He had taken off his helmet, revealing a slice going across his forehead, blood dribbling down his face and thankfully missing both his eyes. His bottom lip was split and swollen purple.

Keith assumed he felt just as bad as he did, and probably worse.

"I've been better." Keith replied, looking down at the blood on his lap. His blood. "Nothing painkillers and a nap won't fix."

Lance snorted with laughter. "I hate how true that is for you. I bet if I cut off your leg you'd be back in the training deck before we could say amputation."

Keith frowned at him. He was rather fond of his legs; he didn't like to think about losing them. "Don't get any ideas." He warned.

Lance waved him off. "Nah, course not."

Keith could feel Reds amusement bleed through their connection, and he offhandedly glanced towards the visual when he saw a shadow fall over Lance.

Spider.

It was the spider.

“Oh, god!” he yelped, falling backwards in shock.

Lance laughed at him before he turned and looked at the spider himself, releasing a high-pitched shriek as he tried to scramble away. “Gross gross gross gross!”

“Why is it so huge?!”

“I don’t know! Why would I know!”

“I don’t know!”

Keith felt more than heard Blue growl, the sound vibrating his body and shaking him to the core. It didn’t feel right when Blue did it. The spider quickly scrambled away, the two paladins staring at the visual and watching it disappear into the surrounding forest. Keith relaxed marginally before he realized Lance was far, far too close for comfort, and that he was clinging onto his chest armour.

“Uh, Lance?”

“Yeah?”

“A little space would be good. Please.”

Lance jumped away as if he had been burned. Whatever apology he stuttered went ignored by Keith, who was now working on leaving Blue.

“We can work out this mess in the morning.” Keith said, Blue finally opening up. “I’m going to see what I can do for Red.”

“Uh, yeah, sure.” Lance awkwardly replied. “Do you think there are more of those things out there?”

“There probably are.” Keith replied as he slid down onto the marsh. “Just something we have to anticipate.”

Lance audibly gulped as Keith took out his bayard, releasing his sword as he carefully edged his way around Blue, looking for where Red was. She was sat in front of Blue, and her hatch obediently opened when Keith ran over to her.

_I do not think I am able to move on my own much more, my paladin_.

“That’s fine.” Keith replied as he hobbled up the slope. His legs felt as though he had been run over repeatedly by an 18-wheeler. “Where do you hurt the most? I’ll see what I can do for you.”

_My pains are yours, my paladin._

“Red.” Keith said with warning.

_My side is sore. Where I was shot._

“I’ll take a look.” Keith put his bayard back away again, glad that he didn’t have to slice through any of those disgusting spiders, and carefully prized his helmet off. He hissed sharply, feeling his skin ripping before he took in a deep breath and ripped it off like a plaster. The helmet was dropped as Keith gasped, hands immediately flying to his face.

Ow, ow, fucking _ow_.

_Paladin? Paladin, are you okay_?

“I’m fine.” Keith grimaced, pretty sure he’d reopened a wound or two. The inside of his helmet was caked with dried blood. Cleaning it would be a bitch. “Just took my helmet off.”

Red rumbled in assurance, and something else Keith couldn’t quite place.

Keith shakily removed what armour he could, knowing he wouldn’t be able to wriggle into the tighter spaces of Reds interior to fix her with it on, and he grabbed the first aid kit. He couldn’t exactly get dried blood into her circuits, after all.

With nothing to use as a mirror, he simply had to guess where the cuts were. Thankfully, the antiseptic burned whenever it encountered a wound so he quickly found all of them on his face. It hurt. There were a _lot_.

He’d probably scar from this.

He didn’t have any family to care, so he supposed it didn’t really matter.

Once satisfied, he stowed the first aid kit away again and pulled out the small tool box Allura had insisted that they bring with them. While Keith knew very little about repairing robotic lions, his expertise laying in Earth vehicles, he supposed that it would have to do and hope his guesswork was enough.

“I’m sorry if this hurts, Red.”

_It will be worthwhile, my paladin. Your efforts are welcome._

Keith popped a panel off the side, following the sensation of a phantom ache in his side. It danced on the edge of his conscious, and he could only guess that it was Reds pain he was feeling.

Poor girl.

He found a few wires that had been twisted out of shape, mangled, unplugged and sparking. He gently teased the kinks and knots out with his fingers before taping up any exposed wire, and plugging things back in using pure guesswork. The way the ache in his side subsided, he guessed that he had got it right. He carefully closed the panel back up again and sat back with a sigh.

His head hurt.

“Anything new happening outside?”

_There is dust._

Keith staggered over to the pilot chair, leaning against it for support as he looked outside. Sure enough, there was a large plume of dust in the distance, slowly growing like ash did on an erupting volcano. A moment later, he could hear a boom and Red shook slightly.

“What was that?!” Lance shouted over the comm.

“I think… something’s making the rock explode?” Keith replied uncertainly. “Hunk said that we’d been shot down by the planet, right?”

“I’m not sure I like where you’re going with this, Keith.”

“I think something’s quarrying over there.”

Keith staggered back over to his armour and began to tug it back on, ignoring how his joints screamed at him to stop and at how his muscles ached. He had to go investigate. He had to know why they were shot down.

“Keith, don’t you dare go over there!”

Keith didn’t reply.

“Right, that’s it!” Lance snapped, the sound of him slapping his thighs carrying over the comm. “I’m coming over!”

“Red, do not let him in.” Keith said, smirking when Lance spluttered in indignation. He heard Lance swearing to himself, cursing out Keith and red and the damn planet. A few moments later, just as he was about to put his helmet back on, he heard a banging at the hatch.

“Keith! I mean it!”

“I’m going!” Keith struggled with his helmet, the mechanism jammed by the dried blood. _Damn it_!

The hatch clicked open, and Keith whirled around to see Lance standing triumphantly at the base before he stalked up towards him.

He glared at the monitor. _Traitor_.

Red rumbled in amusement.

When Lance was clear of the hatch, Red snapped it shut again. No escape here, little paladin.

“Wow, you look awful.” Lance laughed at Keith.

Keith frowned at him. “You don’t look much better.”

“Whoa, whoa, hold up,” Lance laughed as he knelt down in front of him, “Wait, are you _lisping_?”

“I bit off a chunk of my tongue.”

“You did? Wow.” Lances eyes flicked down to the blood spattered on his abdomen and thighs. “… Where is it?”

“Probably somewhere with some of my teeth.” Keith replied, sighing as he resigned himself to his fate.

“I did wonder why you look like a chipmunk.” Lance cheerfully replied, sitting down next to the hatch. _Bastard_.

Keith slid down to the floor opposite Lance. Red was smaller than Blue, so getting some distance between them was… slightly harder. The pilot cabin was significantly smaller than it was in Blue – if Red had been on Earth, Keith wasn’t sure that they’d all have been able to fit.

He would have left Lance behind.

“Better than looking like a fish.” Keith muttered in reply. Lance made a sound of indignation, but didn’t push any farther. When Keith glanced at him, he saw Lance look down at his hands, all scrunched up on his lap.

“Do you think they’re looking for us?” Lance asked.

“They are.” Keith replied firmly. They were. They had to be.

Uncertainly, Lance nodded. “Yeah. Okay.”

“You’re worrying over nothing.” Keith said, “Shiro wouldn’t let us down. Besides, they can’t form Voltron without us.”

“Sometimes I wonder if that’s all we are. Just tools to form Voltron.”

“We’re its paladins, too.” Keith hoped that was comforting. He always sucked at comforting people.

“Do you think that’s all Allura will ever see me us?”

Of course. Lance and his little boycrush over Allura, he should have seen it coming from a mile away.

_Allura has no time for little children,_ Red rumbled. Lance looked around himself, hands shooting out to steady himself as the interior trembled.

“What’s going on?”

“Nothing, she’s just talking shit.” Keith ran his fingers through his hair. Damn, he needed a comb. “I don’t know. Probably? Hate to break it to you, but I think she’s more interested in revenge than your flirting.”

Lance slumped down with a pout. “I don’t know what else I can do to get her attention.” He whined.

How about you just leave her alone?

Keith bit what remained of his tongue to stop himself from saying it aloud. He’d definitely regret it, just as much as he regretted biting his tongue. Damn it, it was so sore!

“Maybe act like an adult for once.” Keith settled for instead. Slightly more diplomatic.

Just.

Lance slumped even further. “But I aaaaaam!”

Keith simply raised an eyebrow at him. “Are you, now?”

There was a beat of silence, before a meek “Nooo…”

“Exactly.” Keith looked over at the visual, the sky slowly turning amber. Sunset. With a sigh, he started stripping off his armour. He didn’t particularly fancy sleeping in it. “We should sleep, it’s getting late.”

“What if someone comes?”

“Red will let us know.”

Red purred in reply. Yes, she would.

“If you’re sure.” Lance awkwardly replied, following suit and taking off his own armour. Keith watched him in the reflection of his helmets visor.

Bruises. So many bruises.

Keith was transfixed when Lance lifted his arms above his head, his shirt rising slightly and exposing his abdomen. Bruises the colour of storms peppered his skin, and Keith swallowed hard.

Stop it, he scolded himself. It wasn’t going to happen. It was never going to happen. Better to settle with what you have than to ruin it in a moment of stupidity.

Keith hastily went back to taking off his armour. His jacket was somewhere, it would make a good pillow. Discarding the last piece, he turned to rummage around the pilots seat for his jacket. He glanced up at Lance again, unable to stop himself when he heard a clatter. Oh, shit, he was wriggling off the bottom half-

Lance was looking straight at him, eyebrows creased quizzically.

“What?”

“Why are you still here?” Keith found himself saying. No, no that’s not what he wanted at all – he didn’t want Lance to go, he’d spend the entire night worrying!

“If I leave you’ll sneak out.” Lance replied with all the authority he could muster. “So I’m staying to make sure you stay put!”

“Sure, whatever.” Keith grabbed his jacket and walked back to where his armour was. He folded up his jacket and dumped it onto the floor before settling down, his head laying on it.

Five minutes of near silence followed, Lance finally wriggling free of the metal and settling down himself.

Then, “How long do you think they’ll take?”

Keith groaned. “I don’t know. Maybe they’ll be here by tomorrow?”

“I hope they are.”

“Miss Allura?” he teased.

“Maybe.”

Keith’s heart twisted in his chest. “If you sleep they’ll get here faster.”

“Are you being sassy with me?”

“Me? Never.”

“Lair.”

Keith simply curled up tighter into himself and squeezed his eyes shut.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so glad the first chapter was so well received! I didn't write in the lisp Keith would get for ease of reading, but just know it's there. Sorry if that ruins the illusion for some!  
> I also updated the tags as in my sleep deprived state last night, I missed a few. Go me.  
> I can't say when I anticipate the next chapter to be out, but I hope that it's soon! I have work and university to juggle, please pray for me.


	3. Chapter Three: Jellyfish and Spiders

Keith woke up panting and covered in sweat. He pushed himself up onto his elbows, rapidly looking around the inside of the cabin as he tried to control his breathing. His fringe was stuck to his face, matted and damp with sweat and blood.

Lance was still blissfully asleep and sprawled out in the cabin, his eye mask firmly in place. Did he bring it with him?!

Images still flashed behind his eyes, a burning sensation digging deep behind his temple and bleeding down. With a mumble, Keith dug his palm into his eyes and grit his teeth.

 _Fuck_.

He could still hear phantom screams; pleas and shouts of reassurance.

_I’ll be okay, Red. I’ll be fine, please don’t panic, I’ll be right back. I’ll be back for you. I promise, I promise, I promise-_

He didn’t realise he was crying until his body trembled with the force of a sob trying to tear from his chest, his knees curled up towards him as he hugged them closer.

It felt like a memory, but it wasn’t him he saw. It was someone else, a girl, an alien girl. Their hair was so different to his, as was their skin, their height, everything about them.

But their eyes were the same. Tears blurred his vision as he chomped down on his bottom lip to stop any sounds from escaping. Something insisted that he was seeing himself, that he remembered that.

It felt horrible, the feeling that bubbled up in his chest. No, the feeling insisted, tearing his chest apart, it is you that was you; you are one in the same.

 _My paladin?_ Red wrapped herself around Keith’s conscience, a comforting blanket. _What is wrong?_

‘What was that?’ Keith asked, still shaking hard. He dug his fingers into his legs, ignoring the way pain stabbed down to the bone.

 _I do not know_. Red sounded somewhat irritated. Keith got the vague impression her tail would have lashed around her if it could. _I feel as though I should recognize them._

‘It feels like that was me.’

 _Perhaps it was_.

‘How could it be?’

 _This universe works in mysterious ways_. Red rumbled, and Keith felt her shift as her head turned to look at something. _There is much we both do not know_. _I know you are confused, my paladin, but my memory is lacking. I cannot help you._

Keith shakily wiped his eyes. Red was right. She was just as confused as he was, if the emotions he could feel through their bond was to be trusted, and Keith would just have to suck up and accept that.

‘Where can I get answers from?’

_Perhaps the castle has them._

Keith nodded, a plan forming in his mind. First things first, get rescued. Then once back in the castle, after Coran had done enough poking to satisfy himself and Allura had deemed them in acceptable condition to return to training, he’d do some snooping.

For now, he had some snooping to do on the planet. That dust cloud and the loud boom that accompanied it bothered him. It didn’t look like an ash cloud, so the likelihood of it being a volcanic eruption was very unlikely. They had a bit of time. If it were volcanic in nature, Keith certainly wouldn’t have let them spend the night so close. He had no idea what kind of volcano it was, and he wasn’t willing to risk a pyroclastic flow burying them under layers upon layers of ash while they slowly baked inside of Reds cabin. It didn’t bare thinking about.

Lance was still, thankfully, asleep, so Keith quietly pulled his armour back on, left his Jacket on top of Lance, and slipped out of the hatch. He left his helmet behind.

‘Which direction am I going?’ Keith asked, activating his bayard as he slowly crept around Reds legs. It was still dark, a bright yellow moon hanging in the sky above him, so he stuck close to his lion as he scanned the surrounding forest for anything that moved.

 _Behind my sister of blue_ , Red replied swiftly. _Please be quick, the paladin of blue is stirring._

Keith sped off into the forest behind the blue lion, slipping and sliding all the way. If there was life there, then there would be someone who would know just why they got shot down.

His money was on Galra interference.

* * *

 

Lance jumped up when he realized Keith wasn’t there anymore.

He had woken up to the sound of sniffling, but he thought he was still dreaming. Keith didn’t cry. He was incapable of emotions other than anger and surprise, and even then the latter was questionable. Lance cursed loudly when he saw that he was alone in the cabin and Keith’s armour was gone. Sneaky bastard! His hands reached down to throw whatever was on his lap to the side, and he froze as his fingers brushed over leather.

What the fuck? Why was Keith’s jacket on him? Unless… Keith had put it over him as he left? He wasn’t quite sure how that made him feel, but he wouldn’t say it felt bad. It felt good. _Really_ good. He bit back the urge to shove his face into it and inhale, not entirely sure why he wanted to do that. Christ, the gay was strong in this one.

Lance scrambled to put on his own armour, ignoring how his burn shrieked at him to _stay fucking still_ and at how his head throbbed, and how his hair was sticking to his head due to things he didn’t particularly want to think about right now. Pausing for a moment before he put his helmet on, Lance experimentally clicked by his left ear.

Nothing.

Biting his lip, Lance slipped on his helmet and opened up communications with Keith.

“Oi, Keith? Buddy?” Lance said. He heard a crackle behind him.

It was coming from the pilots’ chair.

Almost dreading what he was going to find, Lance stumbled over. Keiths helmet sat proudly on the chair.

Lance swore loudly, ripping his own helmet off and throwing it angrily at the ground. He grabbed onto Keiths helmet and was about to give it the same treatment when his thumb tucked in underneath the helmet and crunched.

Startled, Lance looked at his hand to find it covered in flakes of dried blood.

Oh, damn, _Keith_!

Just how much blood had that idiot lost?!

Lance dropped the helmet as he scrambled towards the hatch. “Red, let me out!” Lance banged on it. “Red!”

The lion didn’t respond.

“Red, please!” Lance resorted to begging with the sentient metal lion. He couldn’t hear her replies, nor did he know if she was, but it didn’t stop him from trying to communicate. “I’m not gunna stop Keith, I just wanna make sure he doesn’t get himself killed. He’s hurt.”

Red didn’t budge

Meanwhile, Keith was blissfully unaware of Lance’s predicament trapped inside his lion as he crept closer and closer to what he now realised was an artificial lake.

The explosions he had heard before were simply means of expanding it. The water appeared to be crystal clear, and he could hear splashes and watery laughter. Something was playing by the side of it.

Keith crouched down lower, hoping that the bright red of his suit didn’t stand out too much from the tawny forest he found himself in, and peered around the thick mushrooms to see who was at the lakeside.

A strange creature was sat by the lake, what Keith assumed were their legs splashing in the lake and sending waves rippling across the surface. They were see through with a pink tinge, their legs bundles of rippled jelly that looked like ribbons. He could see all of their internals.

With a start, he realised that they were jellyfish. A weird, bipedal jellyfish. His hand slipped from the shock, falling straight into the marshy ground with a wet slap.

“Who goes there!” They demanded, suddenly slipping into the water and turning around to face the edge of the mushroom forest. Keith silently cursed before gingerly standing and coming out from behind the mushrooms.

“Keith.” He said, immediately regretting it. What. The. _Fuck_. Keith. So suave, such an _excellent_ first impression. He walked as close to the edge of the lake as he dared, the jellyfish creature looking decidedly uncertain as they ducked most of their body under the water to hide themselves, eyes peering fearfully at him.

Keith absently realised they must not be able to see him that well. Actual eyes as he knew them hadn’t quite evolved when Earth was in this state, but now that he thought about it, humanoid jellyfish hadn’t been a thing. Ever. “I’m a paladin of Voltron. You don’t need to be scared.”

The jellyfish creature shrieked, backing away rapidly. “No! Voltron is to be feared!” They ducked under the water with another wail and Keith watched as they swam away into the depths.

Well, that kind of explained why they were shot down, then. The planet thought that they were evil.

Keith blinked as he saw three forms rapidly swimming towards him. More of the jellyfish creatures, it looked like.

The fastest one, tinged with swirls of purple and green, threw a particularly sharp piece of coral at Keith before they broke the surface. Keith managed to duck out of the way, the coral lodging itself into a mushroom a few feet behind him. Keith whistled, if that had hit him it would have done some damage.

“Leave! Now! You are not welcome!” They shouted at him.

“What have I done!?” Keith demanded. “I wouldn’t even be here if I hadn’t been shot down!”

The jellyfish mumbled among themselves. “Perhaps we should explain?” One said, a deep deep ocean blue. “It has been ten thousand years.”

Keith raised an eyebrow. Okay, this was getting kind of ridiculous. But maybe they’d be able to give him some answers?

The jellyfish turned to him, one that was a bright fluorescent, and quite frankly, offensive orange grinned at him widely. “We will explain!”

The purple one rolled their eyes. “You’re far too happy about this.”

“I cannot help it!” The orange one chirped. “It is my colour!”

“Anyway,” The blue one continued, “We have no warm feelings towards Voltron. We will accept that you are here, however we ask that you don’t contact us ever again.”

“Why don’t you like Voltron?” Keith asked, kneeling down by the lake. “This is the first time I’ve ever been here.” He frowned at them.

The three looked stunned, and shared a look between themselves. “But… your eyes…”

Keith looked at his reflection in the lake, staring straight into his own eyes. Images flashed in his head again, bringing along a searing pain in his temple. His hand flew to it as he grimaced.

“I’m sorry,” He grit out, “But I honestly haven’t been here before. I’m kinda… new to this paladin thing.”

The aliens looked confused. “Then who are you?”

“I’m _Keith_.” He replied, exasperated. “I’m the red paladin of Voltron, and I come from Earth.”

“The red paladin?” The purple jellyfish shouted, another piece of coral materializing in his hand. “Deathbringer!”

“I’m sorry, what?” Keith massaged his temple.

Before anyone could reply, Keith heard something horrible.

He heard Lance scream his name.

The jellyfish all gasped in fear and ducked beneath the surface as Lance stumbled towards him, blood soaking the bandage on his side through. “Keith! There you are!” He stormed towards him, bayard activated. “What’s your problem!”

“I was taking to the natives!” Keith snapped at him. “It was going pretty well until you came along!”

“Oh yeah, totally.” Lance rolled his eyes at him and tugged him to his feet. “Come on, my runaway mullet.”

Keith let Lance pull him up. “You’re bleeding through.” He commented, gesturing to Lances side. The other glanced down at it.

“Oh.”

Keith raised an eyebrow at him before awkwardly dragging Lance behind him. “I’ll replace the bandage.” He sighed. “Has anyone made contact at all?”

“Not yet.” Lance replied, trudging behind Keith. He made no move to free himself from Keith’s grip. “Why didn’t you tell me you’d lost that much blood?”

“What?”

“Your helmet. It’s full of blood.”

“There’s not that much.” Keith replied. “I’ve lost more.”

Lance spluttered. “ _Keith_ -“

There was a sound above them, and Keith only had a moment to shove Lance out of the way as a spider jumped down from the treetops with a splatter.

Bayard activated, Keith lunged at it with a shout, stabbing his sword straight through the spiders head. Lance audibly gagged as Keith wriggled his sword about in an attempt to free it.

“Dude?!” Lance choked, hand pressed onto his mouth hard enough to make his skin go white.

“What?” Keith asked as he finally freed his sword. “I was surprised!”

“Me too! I didn’t go stabbing it through the head!” Lance spat back.

“You were going to shoot it!” Keith shot back as he pointed at Lance’s rifle.

“I was going to do no such thing!”

Keith scrubbed a hand down his face as he groaned. Then, he went quiet and slowly let his hand fall back down to his side.

He could hear the _schloop_ noise.

He could hear it _a lot._

“Can you hear that?” He quietly asked Lance. Lance shook his head and pointed at his left ear.

“I think I’m deaf in one ear.”

Keith nodded, anxious to get moving. “Come on, I think more are coming.”

“What, so they’re like wasps?”

“Maybe? Whatever it is, I don’t want to be surrounded by spiders. That’s just traumatizing.”

They both broke out into a sprint, Lance panting heavily with a hand pressed tight to his side. Keith had expected him to follow him into the Red lion, so when he jumped up into the barely open hatch and turned around to help Lance, he was shocked when Lance _wasn’t there_.

“Lance!” He shouted, poking his head out. He saw a glimpse of Lance running to Blue.

“Ugh, shit!” Keith allowed the hatch to close as he slumped backwards, breathing hard. He was still sore all over, and he knew that he’d have to spend a few hours in a healing pod. Mouth dry, he staggered to his feet and walked over to his water tank. This had been something that was already built in to their lions – battles in space were long and drawn out, and if a stalemate was reached where no one was moving, and it turned into a stand off, then the basic need for life was water.

It was empty. Keith grimaced and peered inside. Light was shining in through a hole in the bottom.

Well, _fuck_.

Keith went to grab his helmet when he saw Lance’s on the floor. Well, there goes _that_ plan.

“Red?” Keith asked, slumping into the pilots chair. He was only now registering how parched he was.

_My Paladin?_

“Can you ask Blue if her water tank was breeched? Yours was, it’s leaked out everywhere.”

_Of course._

Red was silent for a beat before she replied. Her water tank is fine. _She invites you over, paladin of Blue is struggling._

Keith nodded, grabbing both their helmets and his bayard. “There are spiders everywhere, aren’t there?”

_Yes. Nothing you cannot handle._

Such faith.

Keith sighed and managed to wriggle his helmet on, ignoring how the dried blood scratched at him and itched terribly. He tucked Lance’s helmet under his arm, activated his bayard, and jumped out the hatch.

Spiders were fucking _everywhere_.

If it were in him to scream, he would have. He wasn’t a particularly big fan of spiders that were bigger than his hand, and these ones took the cake. They were the size of large dogs, scuttling around the lions with that disgusting _schloop_ noise and hissing at each other in what he assumed was their language.

Disgusting, disgusting, disgusting!

Keith sucked in a breath to stop himself from making a sound of revulsion when he saw just how covered Blue was.

Oh, she had better open that damn hatch.

Keith broke out into a sprint, hoping to dear god that the spiders didn’t have any venom as he tried his best to hack his way through anything that got in his way. Green goop burst out of their bodies as they fell to the ground with a wet thump, much like the sound toilet paper made when it was thrown at the ceiling in a school bathroom.

“Lance!” He shouted as he skidded underneath Blue, banging on the hatch. “Lance for the love of god-“

The hatch popped open, a surprised Lance peering down at him.

“Keith?”

“You useless prick!” Keith snapped as he threw the helmet up first before he hauled himself in. “Why didn’t you follow me!”

“I was going to my own lion!” Lance replied indignantly. “Is that a problem?”

“Yes!” Keith seethed. “I was meant to replace your bandage!”

“I can do it myself, see?” Lance proudly pointed to the bandage hap-hazardly pasted onto his abdomen. It had been crudely taped into place, and Keith knew just by looking at it that Lance had done a crap job. Sighing, Keith took his helmet and gloves off before trudging back over to the medical kit.

“That isn’t going to hold.” Keith dug out more bandages. “Take your armour off again, I’m going to do it properly.”

Lance harrumphed but did as told anyway. There was no telling when they were going to be rescued, so it was best to just _try_ and get along with him. He didn’t want to go through shit to find another red paladin and try _bonding_ with another Keith. Just one Keith was enough, thank you very much.

Their helmets crackled. The two jumped towards them and tugged them on, eyes wide as they shared an excited look.

Rescue?

“Oi! Don’t ignore me!” Pidge snapped.

Rescue!

“Pidge!” Lance exclaimed. “Boy, am I glad to hear you!”

“I take it you haven’t killed each other yet?” Pidge asked.

“Not yet.” Keith replied. “How far away are you?”

“About five minutes? Are you by your lions?”

“Yeah, we’re inside them.”

“Why?” Pidge cautiously asked. “Did you upset any of the natives?”

“You… could say that.” Keith replied before Lance could sell him out. “You’ll see when you get here.”

Keith turned back to adjusting the bandage on Lance, the other biting down on his lip to stop any sounds of pain from escaping. He was pretty sure it was going to scar.

Then, five minutes later, Pidge piped up.

"Eurgh, what the hell?" Pidge exclaimed. She circled them with unease, eyes locked onto the huge mass of spiders that were crawling over their lions. "What did you guys even do?!"

"It's a long story." Keith grumbled back. "Can you get us out of here?"

"Yup. Shiro's getting here in a sec, he was scouting out the origin of the lasers that shot you down first."

"Why don't you land, Pidge?" Lance asked teasingly. "I'm sure your lion must be getting tired."

"No thanks." Came Pidge's clipped reply.

"Who knows how long Shiro will be." Lance continued. "Land, Pidge. Join us."

"Lance stop-"

"One of us! One of us!"

Keith smacked him.

"Hold on," Pidge slowly said over the two now bickering over the smack, "are you both in the same lion?"

There was a pregnant pause that got more and more awkward with every second that passed.

"... Yeees?" Lance slowly replied.

"Lance needed his bandages replacing." Keith awkwardly replied, and Pidge guessed that he would be fiddling with the hem of his shirt. "And the shot breached my water tank, so..."

"I see." Pidge grimaced. The two were probably going to be at each other's throats at any minute now. Shiro had rushed the rescue knowing this; he didn't particularly fancy having to replace any of his Paladins due to murder. "Try not to kill each other."

"Oh, that's already happened." Lance chirpily replied. "I think we can guess who won!"

"Keith?"

"Wha- no!" Lance spluttered. "I did! I totally won!"

"Yeah," Keith snorted, "which is why you're bleeding. Again."

Lance swore loudly and quickly pressed his hands into his side. "Wwhyy?" He moaned. Lance felt the phantom sensation of a slipper smacking the back of his head and he swallowed hard. Shiro was going to be lecturing him on his language again, wasn't he?

"Pidge, do you know how much vitamin C we're getting?" Keith asked. "Lance isn't healing that well."

"Uhh," Pidge was quiet for a beat, "I'm sure I'll be able to work something out."

Well, a non-answer was better than nothing.

Shiros voice crackled over the comms. "Pidge, you find them?"

"Yeah, but they're covered in spiders."

"They'll burn up when we get into the atmosphere." Shiro replied. Ooh, _cold_. "You grab the red lion, I'll get the blue."

Pidge swooped down and tightly squeezed her eyes shut, ignoring the fact that the red lion was _covered_ in spiders and that they were probably also crawling all over her lion, too.

"This is disgusting." Pidge whined. She glanced over at Shiro to see that his lion wasn't dealing much better. He had elected to pick the blue lion up by the scruff like a mother cat would her kitten, and the spiders were swarming over his face and-

Pidge gagged and looked away. Gross gross gross gross!

They were mostly silent the whole way back, and the spiders slowly dropped off one by one when they realised that the lions had taken flight. They disappeared into the forest below.

Keith couldn't help but stare at the lake, one word ringing in his head.

Deathbringer.

He had a name to work with.

* * *

 

Coran had, eventually, accepted that Keith was perfectly fine and only needed a few hours in the regeneration chamber to rebuild his tongue. Lance needed much longer, but that was hardly a surprise to anyone.

He wouldn't get his teeth back.

He was okay with that.

"We can try to find some substitute teeth for you," Coran had said, "they won't be perfect, but it's something."

Knowing that the issue wouldn't be dropped unless he accepted them, Keith had nodded his head and told them to go for it. The reality was, Keith knew he didn't exactly need all his teeth anymore given his diet consisted almost entirely of goo, but that would be for another day.

Hunk was elbow-deep in Red's side when he dropped by the hangar to check up on her.

"She's a little water damaged," Hunk said, wiping off his hands, "but she'll be just fine." He smiled at Keith, who simply nodded and went aboard.

His helmet was still on the seat. He grabbed it, patted the side of the pilots cabin, and disembarked.

_My paladin?_

'Yeah?'

_Are you okay? Is everything alright?_

'I'm fine. Hunk is repairing you as best he can.'

_Hunk?_

'The yellow paladin.'

Red seemed to slowly nod in acknowledgment. For some reason, Red didn't recognise the other paladins. She recognised Lance pretty quickly as most of Keith's attention had been focused on him, but it was only recently that she was starting to recognise Shiro. She still had to work on who he actually was though; she insisted on calling him _the not paladin_. Whatever what meant. Pidge was merely the little gremlin who she sometimes saw glimpses of - she hadn't even connected her to be a paladin yet. Hunk was slowly getting there. Slowly.

_Do you trust this one?_

'Implicitly.'

_Very well, my paladin._

Keith left Hunk to his own devices, a warm feeling curled up in his chest. Red stayed wrapped around his conscience, purring at him.

Back in his room, Keith peeled off his bloodstained clothes and dumped them into the wash basket. He’d deal with those later; first things first, he needed a shower. Blood was still caked on his body and damn, it was uncomfortable.

He lifted his arms to turn the faucet, and immediately scrunched up his face. _Ugh_ , and he stank of sweat, too. He felt somewhat sorry for everyone he had came into contact with since his last shower.

Didn’t feel guilty about Lance, though.

Just slightly embarrassed, although he wasn’t entirely sure why.

_Of course you know why, Keith._

Gritting his teeth, he set to working warm water through his matted hair. The water was tinged red, and it stung his sensitive skin, but he couldn’t bring himself to care when he only had one word spinning round and round in his head.

Deathbringer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So glad people are enjoying this!


	4. Realisations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I drew the previous red paladin. I’m the annoying type who needs to actually draw things sometimes so I can work out what they look like;; I’m deffo no artist buut yeah! One sketchy af drawing, and one with colours and tones! Oooh! They’re at the bottom for your enjoyment. I’ve started the other paladins too, but I’ll reveal them later.  
> Not as long as usual, but I'd kept you guys waiting a while and it's the final 5 weeks of this uni semester, so it's balls to the wall until January. Just kill me, please.

His hair is still damp as he hunts for Pidge.

He was not tech savvy. All of the ships systems were in an alien language – Keith didn’t have the time to learn every single letter, its pronunciation, its meaning. Pidge, however, had been learning it, and she also had access to her laptop.

Keith had no idea how Pidge had done it, nor did he particularly care, but her laptop could run a piece of text through it and spit out a translation in seconds. It was what he needed… if Pidge was willing to look for him without any questions.

“Why?” Was the first infuriating word out of her mouth.

Hand twitching, Keith resisted the urge to throttle her.

“Because,” He slowly said, “I need something looked at.”

“That’s not really much of an explanation.” Pidge replied, tapping away on her keyboard.

“Fine, I’m curious about something.” Keith sat himself down next to her. “Please?”

Pidge sighed and pushed her glasses further up on her nose. “What was it you needed me to look for?”

“Deathbringer. The aliens on that planet I crashed on threw it around a lot.”

Pidge looked at him from the corner of her eye. That was an emo as hell name, and Keith was an emo as hell guy.

“Ever thought they were talking about you?”

Keith twitched in what Pidge assumed was annoyance.

“Why would they be talking about me?”

“Because you look like the sort of person who’d have that name on Bebo.”

“What’s Bebo?”

Pidge just pinched the bridge of her nose and said “ _Never mind_ ” through gritted teeth. She tapped a few keys and sat back. “I’m running a search on all of the archives. If we get a match, it’ll come up here.”

The laptop chimed.

0 results found.

Pidge hummed. “Maybe it’s because I didn’t put a space between the two words?”

She tapped a few more keys.

3 results found.

Keith’s heart leapt in his chest.

“Here,” Pidge says as she taps her screen. “Three hits. Happy?”

“Can you print them out for me or something.”

Pidge pauses. “I don’t think they have printers in space.”

“Uh, a tablet or anything? Do they have iPads in space?”

“I genuinely can’t tell if you’re being snarky or not.” Pidge grumbles, but she digs out a tablet regardless and transfers the files onto it. They’re quite big files, the time estimated climbing higher and higher and higher and-

“Uhhh, yeah. I’ll drop these by you later.”

Keith nodded and thanked her before leaving. They didn’t have any group activities planned for the day – Allura had given them a grace period to catch back up after their brief escapade on the jellyfish planet.

Silurian Earth, Keith had decided to call it. It fitted it relatively well, all things considered.

Keith stripped off his jacket as he walked into the training room, calling out for the programme to begin on training level one. A robotic gladiator fell from the ceiling, and sized Keith up. The red paladin simply activated his bayard and lunged forwards.

* * *

 

Three hours later finds Keith panting heavily, leaning against the wall with his bayard in his hands as he gasps for breath. Sweat beads on his forehead, soaking his shirt. His hair is damp again, and Keith wonders why he had even bothered with a shower that morning. Oh well, he supposes; nothing’s stopping him from taking another shower that evening. He’d deserve it.

He glances up at the door when he hears it open, Lance loping in. His hands were buried deep in his pockets.

Very suspicious.

“Looking for something?” Keith asks, feeling his heart rate lower. He hoped that it’d go down faster.

Lance visibly jumped, head whacking around to face Keith.

“Dude! Don’t scare me like that!”

“Got hearing back in your ear yet?”

“What? Oh, yeah, yeah I do.” The blue paladin slid down the wall next to Keith. He seemed to be worried about something. Why didn’t he just go to Shiro, Keith thought. Shiro actually knew what to do in these situations.

He didn’t.

“You look grumpy.”

Good one, Keith.

“Had a weird dream last night.” Lance replied, rubbing at his eyes. When Keith looked closer, he realized Lance had dark circles under them. Lance? King of the beauty regime? Having dark circles under his immaculate eyes? Preposterous.

And yet, here he was, looking like he’d smeared charcoal under them and not quite managed to wash it all off.

“What was it about?” Keith prodded. Maybe if Lance was having the same kinds of dreams, it could just be put down to that weird planet they’d landed on. Something in the air.

“I…” Lance rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m not sure. I was with all of you guys, but Shiro didn’t have a face. You were also a girl, for some reason.” Lance frowned. “And I think Hunk was a Balmeran.”

Keith narrowed his eyes at him. “Why was I a girl?”

“Like I know!” Lance huffed and threw his arms across his chest, thumping back against the wall. “It was so weird. I feel like I should remember it.”

“Some dreams are like that.” Keith replied. He couldn’t help but think of his own dreams.

“Maybe.” Lance seemed uncertain as he tucked his legs up into his chest and rested his chin on his knees. “Have you had any weird dreams like that?”

“Yeah.” Keith said after a moment’s consideration. It could be their little secret. “But I don’t see anyone else. It’s just me and Red.”

“Do you think we should tell Allura?”

“I’m sure it’s nothing.” Keith replied, wiping at his brow. “Allura has more important things to worry about than us having a few weird dreams.”

“Then why’d you ask Pidge to do this for you?” Lance brandished a tablet, waving it teasingly at Keith. The red paladin lunged for it, loudly cursing at him.

“Give it! Now!”

“So it is important!” Lance leapt to his feet and jumped a few paces away, turning the tablet on. “Death bringer? What’s that?”

“It’s-It’s nothing!” Keith spluttered. “Just something that the aliens had said on that planet.”

“Silurian Earth?” Lance looked back down and started to read the passage underneath. “I’m not sure this is what you’re after.”

“I’ll be the judge of that.” Keith snapped as he snatched it out of Lance’s hands. “Tell Pidge I said thanks.” He said before stalking off towards his room. He could hear Lance pace after him before the sound of hands slapping thighs and the footsteps stopped.

Good.

Keith stripped off his shirt when he got back to his room, lounging on his bed with the tablet. He turned it on and began reading.

Lance was kind of right. This was somewhat useless. In the first document, Death Bringer came up _once_ and it was in reference to a goddess. In the second, it came up many times, but Keith quickly discovered that it was referring to a devastating plague.

The third document proved to be more promising. Voltron was also mentioned, as were four other names: Dark One, Oracle, Mountain Shifter, and The Defender.

Keith felt ice creep up his legs and blue flashed in his mind as he read the last one. He got the unbearable feeling that they were important to him, and that something terrible had happened.

A face edged into his mind, the memory just on the edges of his conscience. Keith frowned and squeezed his eyes shut, desperately willing it to come closer so he could grab it and-

His eyes flew open and he breathed in sharply.

_Lance_.

_Not Lance._

_Eyes._

“Oh, shit.” Keith shakily gasped.

Lance, meanwhile, was leaning against the wall outside Keith’s room, wondering how he was going to apologise.

Shiro had come onto him with his typical disappointed father expression that he seemed to reserve just for Lance, and had gently _suggested_ that he apologised to Keith for pissing him off.

Trust Shiro to have overheard their argument.

Blue pushed at the edge of his mind, begging for attention. Lance batted her away, insisting that he’d talk to her later, promising he’d swing by her hangar for some quality time, but right now he had to figure out how to apologise to Keith for what he thought was _nothing_.

Gingerly, he knocked on the door and prayed Keith ignored it. No such luck, as he heard the patting of footsteps on the hard floor and the click of the door being unlocked.

“Lance?” Keith incredulously asked, suddenly all to aware of the fact he was half naked.

Lances eyes flicked down out of instinct, and he had to quickly catch himself before he got too carried away and look back up at Keith’s face. Yes, the _face_. The safe option. Were his cheeks burning?

“I…” Lance chewed at his cheek, “I’m sorry for pissing you off.”

“Shiro’s making you apologise, isn’t he?”

Lance blanched, choking on his own spit. “What! No! This is genuine, from my heart. You’re wounding me, man. Wounding me.”

“Yeah, right.” Keith snorted. “Whatever, it doesn’t matter. I didn’t care anyway.”

“Really?” Lance’s face lit up.

“Yeah, I expect it from annoying little brothers.”

“I- excuse me!” Lance would have stomped his foot if it wouldn’t have just solidified Keith’s point. _Damn him_.

“Just go to sleep, Lance. You look terrible.”

“Yeah, well, you look terrible too!”

“Ooh, burn.” Keith deadpanned. “Goodnight, Lance.”

Lance huffed and stalked off. Keith silently watched him and wondered how the fuck he was _The Defender_.

He couldn’t even defend his own dignity.

The bed squeaked underneath him as he sat down, mulling over the other names. Dark one. Oracle. Mountain Shifter.

They sounded like they had come from a really, really bad game of Dungeons and Dragons.

Keith shuffled backwards so his back was against the wall, ignoring how the cold bit into his skin, and continued reading.

Lance, meanwhile, continued to stalk down the hallway.

Who did Keith think he was! So righteous and up himself, ugh, he hated it! He was such a shitty rival, too. Rivals were meant to try to one up the other, not do it so effortlessly.

He punched in the code to open his door and threw himself at his bed, clutching the pillow and screaming into it.

Keith drove him _insane_. He wanted to bang his fists on the wall until he left dents in the unforgiving metal, wanted to scream until his lungs gave out. He wanted, he wanted…

He didn’t know.

* * *

 

Lance woke up to his pulse pounding in his ears and sweat soaking his sheets. He was gasping for breath; his blankets wrapped around him like a cocoon and restricting his breathing. Swallowing hard, he relaxed his hands from their death-grip on the duvet and forced himself to control his breathing.

_In, two, three, four, five, out, two, three, four, five…_

Screams still rang in his ears, and given how raw his throat felt, he wasn’t sure if they weren’t just in his head. His mouth tasted sour, a shaky hand feeling something wet and sticky on his chin.

Hunk. He needed Hunk. _Now_.

Lance stumbled into his bathroom and splashed his face with water, willing it to clean up whatever was slickening his chin, before he swirled clean water around in his mouth and spat it into the sink, his hands clenching onto the basin until his knuckles turned white and an ache shot through his thin fingers.

“God damn.” Lance gasped into the mirror, his breath fogging the glass. He looked at himself.

He looked awful.

Deciding that he’d need something to get the vile taste out of his mouth, Lance shrugged on his dressing gown and put on his slippers before trudging down to the kitchen. Hunk might be there, too – he had a penchant for midnight snacks.

The light was on, and his heart skipped a beat. Hunk was there! He sped up slightly and caught himself on the doorway, looking in with a huge grin on his face before he faltered. The grin slid off his face like a kid on a slip n slide.

Keith sat hunched in a chair, a half empty glass in front of him, his hand massaging his forehead as he grimaced. His hair was matted and stuck to his face, the remains of a ponytail barely visible for all the hair escaping the bobble.

The tablet was in front of him, the screen cracked and dim. Keith had been there for a while.

Lance quietly padded in, his slippers making a faint scratching sound on the floor. “Keith?”

Keith flinched and his head shot up, his eyes red and bloodshot. They glistened in the soft light of the kitchen, and Lance realised that he had been crying.

Keith? _Crying_?

The two were like oxymorons, yet here Keith was, his eyes watery and his sleeve wet. The red paladin slowly looked back down at the table.

Lance felt something rolling down his cheek. He pressed a hand there and it came back wet.

Was he crying too?

“I think that planet did something to us.” Keith said, rubbing at his puffy eyes.

Lance felt inclined to agree. He grabbed a sachet of water from the cooler and slumped down opposite Keith. He absently wiped his face on the sleeve of his dressing gown as he slurped up his drink, looking anywhere but at Keith.

“Should we tell Allura?” Lance asked.

“She’ll just make us get into the pods again.” Keith replied. “I think we should just wait it out. They didn’t pick anything up the first time round.”

Lance hummed. “True, but maybe that’s because we weren’t far enough along.”

“You’re making it sound like we’re pregnant.” Keith groaned.

“You never know, those spiders were pretty shifty.”

“Don’t even go there. That’s disgusting.”

Lance laughed, the sound watery. “Just presenting the possibility!”

“Please don’t. Ever. Go there again.” Keith rubbed at his temple again, his hands going white with the pressure he was applying. Lance frowned at that. Did it hurt that much?

“Dude, you okay? You’re rubbing your head a lot.”

“I’m fine.” Keith gritted out. “Just a headache.”

“It looks more like a migraine.”

“Again, I am fine.” Keith wriggled the bobble out of his hair. “I just need some sleep.”

“You and me both.” Lance sluggishly ran his fingers through his hair, grimacing at how greasy it felt. _Ugh, disgusting_.

“Were you looking for someone?” Keith asked after a few moments of silence. He was nursing his glass in his hands, staring at the rim intently. Lance noticed that he hadn’t really ever seen the red paladin with bare hands – they were always in those stupid ass gloves. He bet they were calloused to hell, but he still wanted to touch them.

Nope, no, away, gay thoughts. Keith wasn’t interested. Lance would place his cards on Keith being ace, and so very much not interested in his bisexual ass. It was just easier to focus on someone who would give him the time of day, even if they did seem more interested in his superior.

… Right?

“Hunk.” Lance admitted. “In the garrison, after nightmares I’d go into his bunk…” Lance seemed to _blush_ as he told Keith his dirty secrets. “He gives really good hugs.”

“I’m not hugging you.”

“I don’t want you to hug me anyway!”

“Glad we’re on the same page.”

Lance huffed. “I bet you feel all bony too. And cold, like a lizard.”

“Take that back.” Keith stood up sharply.

“What you gunna do? Hug me to death?”

Keith looked at him blankly for a moment, before the corner of his mouth did that annoying twitch and he was walking around the table.

“N-no! No bonding moments!” Lance shrieked as he fell back off his chair, scrambling away as quickly as he could. “Keith, no!”

Keith bit his tongue to hold back his laughter as he ran after Lance, arms outstretched.

“Aw, come on Lance!”

Lance just screamed in response and vaulted over the kitchen table.

Keith jumped after him almost effortlessly, upsetting his glass on the table. The taller boy yelped and tripped over the stool on the floor, sprawling out on the floor. He fearfully turned back to see Keith looming over him, arms outstretched-

Keith wrapped his arms around him and hoisted him to his feet, holding him in a crushing hug. Lance shoved his hands into Keith’s face and pushed away with all his might.

“Ugh, dude, _boundaries_.”

“Well, am I a lizard?”

“No, you’re like a fucking _rock_.” Lance hissed, trying to wriggle out of his grip. “Jesus Christ, what are you made of?!”

Keith released Lance with a smug look on his face. Lance grabbed onto Keith’s shoulders, about to give him a lecture his mother would be proud of, when his breath caught in his throat.

_Eyes_.

He felt his own stinging, and all he could hear were tears welling up and screaming.

“Lance?” Keith asked, silently cursing at himself. Damn it! Had he made Lance cry?! Was he too mean?? When Lance didn’t reply, he gave him a little shake. “Lance? Are you okay?”

Lance choked out a sob. “You died.”

“What?”

“I-In my memory. Dream? Whatever. You died. We all got separated, I couldn’t get back to you in time.”

“It’s just a dream from that planet-“

“Is it, though?” Lance wiped at his eyes. “I looked at some of the stuff on the tablet while I was looking for you, it fits. It felt familiar.”

Keith had no idea what to say.

“Why do you care so much if I die?”

Oh, yes, Keith. Perfect reply right there. Keith winced at how _awful_ that was. For one, he sounded self-depreciating and depressed as fuck, and secondly, he had almost snapped it in an accusing tone. So totally not what he was going for.

Lance glared at him hotly. “Because, Keith, we’re a _team_ and I’d like to consider us as being _friends_.”

Ooh, shit son. Keith’s fingers flexed and he opened and closed his mouth uselessly.

“I’m sorry.” Was all he could muster.

“Shit,” Lance ran his hands through his hair in distress, “I thought I missed Earth and wanted to go back but I can’t even dream it right. When I got scattered there it was covered in ice.”

“Wait, ice?”

“Yeah. It looked kinda nice.”

“How covered?”

“Keith what’s this got to do with anything-“

“Because if this is real, if it is a memory, we can work out when we’re remembering.” Keith replied.

“It wasn’t all the way around? Like, just all over the poles…”

Keith let go of him as he turned to lean against the kitchen table, staring at the wall as he crossed his arms over his chest.

“The last glacial period on Earth ended nearly eleven thousand years ago.” Keith frowned. “There’s a thousand year gap.”

“Uh, how do you know this?” Lance frowned at him as he hiccupped. At least he’d stopped crying as hard.

“The guy who was in the cabin before me was a geologist.” Keith replied. “When there’s no reception, I had to read to pass time.”

“So you’re a geology nerd.”

“That’s one way of putting it.” Keith grumpily replied. “Technically Earth’s still in an ice age, they’re just in an interglacial period-“

“Booooring!” Lance swung around to perch on the table next to him. “How’d you get a thousand year gap?”

“Allura said they’d been in stasis for ten thousand years. If the last glacial period was eleven thousand years ago, take away ten thousand-“

“Okay, okay, I get it. Simple math.” Lance waved him off. “So is this thousand years a problem, then?”

“Well, yeah? We have no idea what happened then.”

Lance lay back on the table and hummed, the odd sniffle coming from him every so often. “Well, if these _are_ our memories, then you _did_ die.”

“Charming.”

“No, no, hear me out.” Lance floundered. “I mean, like, we only started to get these weird memories when we were on that weird planet. Maybe we’d been there before, and that’s why? They got triggered by something there?”

“Now that you mention it, they did know what Voltron was.” Keith hummed in reply. “But how does this fix the thousand year gap?”

“I’m getting there. Do you think it just took that long for us to all meet again?”

“You mean reincarnation?”

“Yeah, as weird as that sounds.”

Keith frowned. It just didn’t sound right. That… still didn’t fix the missing thousand years. They didn’t meet ten thousand years ago – that was when Allura and Coran wound up in stasis to hide away from the war that destroyed their planet. They had met years ago at the Garrison.

“I’m way too tired to think about this.” Keith groaned and rubbed his eyes with the meat of his palm. Lance just yawned in reply.

“Yeah, sure.” Lance took one last gulp of his water. “See you in the morning.” He rolled off the table, landing on all fours before standing, straightening his clothes, and strutting out.

Keith just watched him bewilderedly. What the hell?

Shaking it off as just Lance being Lance, Keith grabbed the tablet and slunk back to his room.

It was horribly cold in his room, and Keith shuddered as he climbed back into bed. The sheets felt like ice.

He thought back to what Lance was saying.

He died, he really did die, and it cut Lance deep to know this. Keith didn’t really understand why, though. Death was _normal_. Everyone died, it was part of life and you just had to accept it and move on as best you could.

Keith curled his covers around him tighter. Fuck, it was weird to know that he – although technically not him – died, and not-Lance had seen it happening. Were any of the other paladins having weird dreams, too? Who else had seen him die? Did it hurt anyone as much as it had hurt Lance?

Keith turned into his pillow and squeezed his eyes shut, willing himself to sleep.

Lance, on the other hand, was not so calm about it.

He stripped off his clothes the moment he got into his room and turned the hot water on in his shower, stepping in despite it still being devastatingly cold.

The black paladin had killed Keith. The guy they were supposed to trust, to listen to, the one who was to guide them and lead them. He killed Keith. Their most trusted friend killed Keith.

And he could do it again.

Lance dug his fingers into his arms, barely feeling the water start to warm up and tingle on his skin. The black paladin was wearing all black, and when he saw him in the memory he didn’t think it strange it wasn’t Shiro he saw. The same blank face as before, but the colour was starting to register. Purple.

Lance squeezed his eyes shut. The water burned his back.

Hissing in pain, Lance jumped up and hastily turned the cold tap on full blast, turning down the hot as he jumped from foot to foot. Ah, stupid stupid stupid.

This was so, so, fucked up.

* * *

 

 


End file.
